Page 58 of Her Coach

I had to keep my distance.

“That’s not how first times for anything should go,” I said as I stood over her, gazing down into her determined face.

She crossed her arms across her chest. “Well, I don’t regret a single moment of it. Do you?”

“I could never regret you.”

She blinked up at me and that’s when I realized… it’s the truth. I’d never regret her. Fuck the press. Fuck the past. Fuck what people might think. Fuck her mother, if it pissed her off. Just because her mother didn’t want to be happy, hell, just because my mother didn’t want to be happy, didn’t mean the two of us had to be miserable along with them. I found my angel. The angel that the demon inside of me wanted to ruin.

It was enough for me to scoop Brynn into my arms, bringing her ripe body against mine.

“Colton,” she gasped as her hands settled against my chest.

“I will never, ever regret you, Brynn,” I said as I gazed into her eyes.

She reached up and cupped my stubbled cheek. “Thank you for lunch, Colton. It was lovely.”

My jaw clenched before I gave into the whim. I let my eyes fall closed as I nuzzled my cheek against her warm, soft palm. It was like a cloud.

It made me want to put her back on my desk just so I could rest against her.

I have to find a way to shield her from the press.

Because I sure as hell wasn’t going to hide whatever the fuck brewed between me and Bry.

I finally pushed off from the desk and stood in front of her while she tried to get herself back together. She was smoothing her dress. Fixing her hair. Doing everything except looking me in the face. Which was exactly why I tilted her chin up until she had no choice.

“Stop trying to set me up with your mother.”

Her mouth dropped open. “I wasn’t —”

“You were.” I kept my voice even. “Since the day I walked through that door. You’ve been pointing me at her every chance you got. Working her into every conversation. Making sure I knew how great she was, what she liked, what she needed.” I held her eyes. “You want to tell me why?”

She swallowed. Looked away. Looked back. “She’s lonely.”

“That’s her problem to solve, Brynn. Not yours.”

“I know that,” she said. Too fast. Like she’d said it a hundred times and still hadn’t convinced herself.

I studied her for a second longer than was probably fair. But I needed her to hear it. Really hear it. “I’m not interested in your mother, Brynn. I’m standing in my office with you right now and I think you know exactly what that means. So either you’re going to stop hiding behind her, or you’re going to walk out that door and we can pretend none of this happened.”

She didn’t move.

Good.

But I also wasn’t going to let the press devour her alive once they caught wind of what was happening.

“Have dinner with me Saturday night,” I said as I massaged the dip of her waist with my fingertips. “I’ll pick you up at seven.”

Her smile lit up the entire room. We didn’t need lights in here, so long as I kept her smiling. “Sounds like a plan to me. I’ll text you my address.”

I brought my lips back down against hers, plunging my tongue into her depths. She bowed against me, her curves melting into my embrace as I pulled her so close to me that she stood on her tiptoes on top of my boots just to keep in time with me. I wrapped her up. My hand cupped the back of her head. She tilted hers off to the side, and I followed suit in the opposing direction until I didn’t know where my tongue ended and hers began.

I finally pulled back just so the two of us could fucking breathe, placing my forehead against hers.

“Plus, if you’re a good girl for me this week, I’ll show you Saturday night how all of this should’ve been done.”

I relished the shiver that took over her body.